The Magellan RoadMate 3065 has all you need to get from point A to point B without getting lost, you can even stop at Points of Interest along the way as well as head toward point C without getting the hasty make a legal U turn.
Ease of Use, Performance: 25/25
Look & Feel: 24/25
Features 21/25
How much I enjoy 23/25
Total: 94/100
In my second offering at road GPS units or as they are more commonly referred to the navigator, GPS navigator or car GPS, the Magellan RoadMate 3065 gives you just about everything you could want. The Magellan RoadMate comes with the GPS unit, a dashboard mount, USB mini B cable, auto DC power adapter and an instruction manual.
I tossed the unit in my minivan and tested the Magellan RoadMate 3065 for a couple of months without many problems but the first was installation. I didn’t want the unit sitting on my dashboard when I dashed into a store and somebody dashed off with it so I hid it in my center console which took a few minutes of hole drilling and wire routing.
Once my modifications were complete to my minivan wiring and I had a new 12V DC auto power outlet in my center console I placed the RoadMate into it and we hit the road for several road trips. My wife is involved with 4-H and travels a lot in her volunteer efforts so the RoadMate would need to find these small Minnesota towns and odd places in them.
We started with trips to the grocery store, Wal-Mart and close locations but with the current road construction mess we had plenty of going the wrong way to begin with. To start off and get directions you simply turn the unit on and it will acquire a satellite signal quickly, you then go to the Menu and click on Points of Interest or a saved address.
I have had little to no problem finding most businesses and even some State University locations for directions on getting to places and if all else fails a street address will suffice. The RoadMate 3065 does a great job with getting you to a destination and having the choice of Fastest Time, Shortest Distance, Mostly Freeways or Least Use of Freeways in Route Options is great.
To spice things up it even has a pedestrian option so if you want to take the unit as a walking, hiking or biking assistance the 3065 gives you this great feature. Getting to your destination is easy and getting lost is not going to be a problem for the 3065, if you make a turn that is not your green highlighted route the unit takes a few seconds and recalculates.
For long journeys if you get off your highway it simply gives you directions back to the best route but for shorter ones it will figure the best new route using your current location. I have only had the unit tell me a couple of times to make a U turn but more often it will go with what you’re doing and give you a new route.
In a town where there are only a few legal places to make U turns, yes I am referring to you Fargo and Moorhead, it’s nice not being told to make U turns very often. Finding the best route from changing route types is great for the RoadMate 3065 and you have plenty of choices in finding your destinations on the navigator.
Once you find a place in the Points of Interest or Address Menu choices you can add them to your Address book to have a ready list of common destinations. You also have a list of the most recent destinations to choose from on the Menu page and settings for the unit in the Setting pages.
You can choose the various setup options like the sound warning types from bell, chime and beep or no sound to the route method you prefer the most. Other settings like buying new features from Magellan are available like new maps and the unit even does Bluetooth which is great.
To place a call using Bluetooth you need to sync your phone with the unit and then you can call from the RoadMate and talk hands free. The phone option allows you to sync address books from your phone and the RoadMate 3065 so you can get numbers and addresses into each.
To get addresses onto the RoadMate you can sync it with your phone or use the search options in Points of Interest or Address search as well as manually type in addresses for your address book. I have been able to find several older and more obscure addresses for businesses but have also had my share of finding inputting new business addresses which is pretty par for the course with all GPS units.
For many if not most of the major businesses I have had only to do a quick search and found the address with appropriate routes to get there. The RoadMate has plenty of features for an average priced car GPS navigator that only costs about $220 with features that are great for commuters.
One feature that I would like to have checked out but cannot because they simply do not have it here is the Traffic Alerts feature. With Traffic Alerts you can get real time traffic reports and best alternate routes to your destination using a traffic alert system that is only available in certain areas, usually bigger cities.
Part of this feature is road warning and closings due to construction or accidents so it would be a handy feature for those in larger areas as part of their commuter navigation system. The hands free calling also makes a great feature but was not the best sounding Bluetooth setup but again it worked just fine.
I was able to place calls and make course adjustments using my sons phone as a connected Bluetooth device which worked fine so if you have a phone and want it as a hands free in your car it works fine. The RoadMate 3065 also features the AAA TourBook integration so you can find AAA friendly hotels, gas stations and tourist attractions for those nice discounts as well as plan your trip.
The Magellan 3065 also connects to your PC with the included USB cable and a download software Content Manager available from the Magellan website. The Content Manager allows you to update the maps and Points of Interest, download new purchased maps and features and other features that require your computer.
When you’re on a highway those highway signs have the same exact wording and a picture of the signs on the GPS unit so you can see the same sign on your unit as in real life. This means no nasty exiting and using that U turn feature when you missed the exit or got onto the wrong branching of a highway and the highway lane feature even warns you of upcoming lanes.
On our way to one of those 4-H events the highway branches into two major highways and we had to make sure we were in the correct lane and the RoadMate 3065 warned us ahead of time. The unit is always warning when a turn is coming up, occasionally telling you were you’re heading or what road your on to ensure you are going the right way and just to let you know it’s still there and working.
The Magellan RoadMate 3065 has plenty of features and the GPS unit is a quick and easy tool for getting you where you need to without any hassles. Another feature I just have to mention and one that coincides with AAA is a quick way to find the nearest AAA service station in case of breakdowns.
The Magellan RoadMate has plenty of features and works just fine for getting you to your destination and has all the added features you could want. I highly recommend the Magellan RoadMate 3065 as a great GPS car navigator to help you get where you need to go at a good price.
